The invention relates to a control unit for a ventilation arrangement in a vehicle whereby the control unit is designed to indicate and initiate a supply of an air flow to at least three intake air regions in the vehicle, which control unit incorporates a first control device designed to indicate and initiate a supply of said air flow to the three intake air regions by a first intake air distribution which in each control position caters to at most two of said intake.
A control unit in a vehicle needs to be designed so that it can be easily and intuitively read and set to achieve a desired effect. It is also necessary for its setting to be possible without the vehicle driver having to shift his gaze and hence his concentration from surrounding traffic. Control units for controlling intake air in a vehicle usually supply the intake air to three regions, viz. a defroster region, a panel region and a floor region. A problem which arises in this respect is designing a control unit which in a simple and natural manner does at the same time indicate and symbolize a desired intake air supply to these three regions.
Known from, for example, GB, B, 2 212 587 is a control unit for a ventilation arrangement in a vehicle which incorporates a control device in the form of a knob which can be set at and between indicating positions associated with three intake air regions. This entails the limitation that a single control device can only be set between two indicating positions, with the result that intake air can only be supplied to at most two intake air regions simultaneously. Simultaneous supply of intake air to all three intake regions is thus impossible. Moreover, intake air cannot be supplied simultaneously to two regions which do not have adjacent indicating positions.
Another known control unit for supply of intake air to said three intake air regions in a vehicle uses three separate control devices, one for each intake air region.
Each of these three control devices is moved individually along its separate path. This control unit makes it possible for intake air to be supplied entirely variably to said intake air regions. Disadvantages of this control unit are that it occupies a large amount of space on the instrument panel and that the driver has to shift his gaze from surrounding traffic in order to make sure that the correct control device is set and what position it is in.